Ou Virak, chairman of the board for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, says Cambodia must avoid becoming manipulated by China, which is growing in power across the region.
“The CPP is moving toward China,” he said, “while the opposition party doesn’t know what policy it has.

“It would be a good thing if the UNHCR were to handle [the Montagnards’] cases,” said Ou Virak, chairman of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. “The subdecree was a premature delegation of responsibilities, as the government lacks the capacity and institutional credibility. Just look at its track record on refugees.”

Ou Virak, chairman of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, agreed, suggesting the matter be taken to the UN’s special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings.
“The Thai military has behaved badly for a long, long time. They’re getting away with crimes, they get away with murder. Many, many people have become victims, this is not the first incident and never once has there been accountability.”

“If the draft law were adopted in its current version—the version leaked in April 2014—it would provide the government with legal justifications for limiting the use of social media and would seriously affect freedom of expression on the internet,” Sorn Ramana, project coordinator for the Freedom of Expression Project at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said in an email Thursday.

“I think that the most important thing is that relevant authorities in Cambodia should have a clear principle to implement the law, rather than acting on popularity of a story,” Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said. “This means that they don’t wait till there is a public outcry to act.”